


The Keepers

by akire_yta



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Zookeeper AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 06:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2802446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alien life has to go somewhere, and if people want to pay admission to look at them, so much the better.  (for the Prompt: A Chaleigh AU with the both of them as zookeepers. May include whatever other characters you would like to add.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Keepers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



“When I was a kid, whenever I felt small or lonely, I’d look up at the stars. I wondered if there was life up there. Turns out, I was looking in the wrong direction. 

When alien life entered our world, it was from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. A fissure between two tectonic plates; a portal between dimensions. The Breach. I was fifteen when the first Kaiju made land in San Francisco….”

Raleigh paused the recording and sat back in his chair, eyes unfocused as he wracked his brain for the right word. He sighed, and tipped his chair back precariously far. “Hey Yancy, how’d you describe the first kaiju?”

Yancy appeared in the doorway, wiping his hands on a towel. “Trespasser? Hmm,” he threw the towel at his brother, laughing as Raleigh nearly tipped over. “I’m gonna go with….cute. Yeah, cute about covers it.”

Raleigh threw the towel back and pulled himself back to the desk. “This is a serious book, Yance. The definitive history of the kaiju. I can’t call Trespasser cute.”

Yancy was openly laughing at him now. “Whatever, kid. Come on, opening’s in an hour. Hungry mouths to feed.”

“Shit to shovel,” Raleigh grumbled as he saved and closed his manuscript with a flick of his hands through the tricolour field of his computer’s display.

Yancy clapped him on the shoulder, gently shoving him towards the rack of suits they wore while working in the kaiju pens. “Shit to shovel,” he agreed. “The glamourous life of a kaiju keeper.”

He was still laughing, the sound echoing down the hall, as Raleigh tugged off his heavy knit and stepped onto the plate to let the protective suit bolt on around him.

His boots clunked on the stairs as he headed down to the first pod of pens only a few minutes later. Inside, he could hear the weird chirping and chittering of the kaiju, a discordantly happy sound. He wasn’t surprised to find Mako already there, holding out a food pan

“Koko ni kite, saiai no hito,” she cooed at the little kaiju bobbed around her. Onibaba was one of their more skittish kaiju, and Raleigh leaned against the wall, watching as Mako cooed and clicked, the pan of food in her hands. The kaiju, who barely came up to her knees, still swayed back and forward, torn between getting near a human, and the smell of the food she was holding. Finally, hunger won out, and Oni darted forward to take the food right out of Mako’s hands before darting back into the shallow pond that was a feature of every pen.

Raleigh’s little chuckle had Mako’s head whipping around, her eyes lighting up in a smile when she saw him. “He is starting to trust me.”

“That he is,” Raleigh agreed easily, picking up the broad-headed shovel that had been left leaning against a wall. The viscous kaiju blue squelched unpleasantly under his boots as he headed to the worst buildup.

Mako reminded him why he liked working with her so much when she picked up a second shovel and waded after him into the toxic muck without complaint. “We also need to hose out pen nine,” she told him as she slopped kaiju blue into a tub for containment at the back of the facility.

Raleigh paused, leaning on his shovel. To their left, he could hear Onibaba tearing into his food. “Manners,” he scolded the kaiju. “Why pen nine?” he asked Mako, lifting his shovel again and using his boot to force the shovel into the mess. “We haven’t used that one in ages.”

“The Australian delegation,” she reminded him with a teasing little smile. “We got an update this morning, they’ve cleared customs, are on enroute by road. They should be here sometime today.”

“Unless the groupies stop them.” Raleigh shoveled another gelatinous lump into the tub, cursing as the blade wobbled on the end of the handle. “Damn cheapass shovels, why do we still have these? Ha,” he grinned viciously to himself as a thought occurred. “I know, we should get those guys in here with a shovel, then we’d see how much they love kaiju then.”

Mako was smiling fondly at him; she’d heard all his rants before. But any reply was cut off by a metallic banging. Yancy knocked on the side of the heavy door once more with his gauntleted fist for good measure. “You two, come on. Dump that and head over to the main display. Our fearless leader wants a word before we open.”

Raleigh leaned on his shovel. “We’re not due another arrival, are we? Are we?” he yelled after his brother. “Are we?”

Ten minutes later, it seemed like the entire crew of the Shatterdome was crammed into the main public area. Raleigh used his elbows to shove their way to the front. Their facility Marshal, Stacker Pentercost, was standing tall in a smartly pressed suit right in front of the “Origins of Kaiju: A theory” information board. The blue glow of the Category II pens that ringed this level made everything seem like it was underwater.

“Marshal, what’s going on? Movement in the Breach?” Raleigh called out over the general noise of the crowd. All eyes instantly swiveled to him.

Marshal Pentecost gave him a measured look. “Everyone,” he boomed, ignoring the question. “This is Dr Geiszler and Dr Gottlieb,” he stepped to one side to reveal two scrawny fellows, one in a rumpled suit and the other in an oversized parka. “They are joining us from Kaiju Institut de Recherche Avancée.” Raleigh had heard of the place, and he still had no idea why the best minds on Kaiju theory were based no-where near the Pacific Rim. Well, he did, but it wasn’t one the Marshal liked his staff repeating. “They’re here to test a theory.”

“Thank you, Marshal,” the one in the parka said, leaning heavily on a cane with both hands. “My theory…”

“Is batshit insane,” the other one interrupted with a sharp sideways glance at his grumbling colleague. “Whereas mine is really cool. See…” he glanced around the information boards pinned up on the walls between the pen viewing windows. “Oh, that’s so incorrect,” he muttered, waving his hands at the “Origins of Kaiju” board. “Ah, here we are…” He stormed over to the board showing a timeline of Breach arrivals. “Look, have you ever thought about why we use the category system for kaiju?”

“Because we have to throw them back if they’re undersized,” someone -- Raleigh suspected one of the Wei triplets -- yelled out. The room laughed.

Geiszler grinned, showing teeth. “Size, that’s the key. They’re all so different, some like fish or sharks, some like squid, that they seem radically different from each other.” He jabbed his finger along the timeline. “My theory,” he continued proudly. “Is that perhaps they aren’t as different as we might think.” The pointing finger tapped two kaiju, seemingly at random, along the timeline. “I have analyzed samples from kaiju captured years apart on opposite sides of the Rim.” He grinned like a man laying down his trump card. “The DNA was exactly the same. I think they’re clones.”

The laughter died. The only sound in the room was a heavy sigh from Dr Gottlieb.

Geiszler grinned and crossed back to his colleague. “And if Hermann here is correct in his batshit crazy maths, I will get to prove it.”

The sigh was louder and sharper this time. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me by my first name,” he grumbled, the pattern sounding like an old argument. “I am a doctor…”

“Terribly sorry, old chap,” Geiszler snarked over him in a terrible accent. “Go on, tell them what the funny numbers told you.”

Raleigh was sure that Gottlieb’s eyeroll could have been seen from space. But he cleared his throat and straightened his spine. “I have been modeling the appearances of kaiju through the Breach. They’ve been appearing in increasingly rapid divisions of time….”

“We know,” someone called from the back of the room. The Russian accent suggested it was either Sasha or Aleksis. “We are always in that damn bobbing boat now.”

Gottlieb ruffled a little at the interruption. “My model predicts the pattern of Breach activity, and has been accurate down to the minute for the last three recorded Breach events.”

That was news to Raleigh. Normally, the first they knew of a Breach event was when Tendo buzzed all their phones with an alarm code.

At the front of the room, Geiszler had slung an arm around Gottlieb’s shoulders. “And this is where he gets crazy.”

Gottlieb snarled, but didn’t try to shake Geiszler off. “My model predicts that, in 40 hour’s time, the Breach will open again. The Marshal has agreed to send out an observation team to prove my theory is correct. The Breach can be predicted.”

The room was silent.

Marshal Pentecost lifted his chin. “The UNKT has stipulated that our funding will continue on the basis of correct management of the kaiju arrivals. If we screw this up, if the model is incorrect, the Institute’s funding will be cut.”

Next to him, Mako sucked in a breath and Yancy cursed quietly. Raleigh blinked as he finally got it. “Are we in trouble?”

The Marshal looked him straight in the eye. “Our funding is contingent on us keeping our promises regarding management of the kaiju. Briefing packets have been sent to your staff accounts. We still have the Sydney kaiju and staff inbound. We open for visitors in 15 minutes.” He stepped closer to his staff. “The world continues to turn, and we will turn with it until such time that we are no longer able. See to your duties. Dismissed.”

Around them, the noise in the room rose with the sound of a dozen muttered conversations. Slowly, all the techs and support staff filed out, back to their jobs and their terminals to read the briefing. Soon all that was left were the jaeger staff -- the triplets, Sasha and Alexsis, Mako, Yancy.

“Well,” Yancy said with a sigh. “That was an uplifting briefing.”

Sasha was shaking her head. “The Breach is random,” she noted with a scowl. “That little man’s theory is wrong. No math cannot handle that complexity.”

“I hope you are wrong,” Mako said quietly. “For all of us.” Silence settled over the little knot of people, all washed in a kaiju-blue glow from the tanks.

The silence broke with the thudding of boots on the stairs. “G’day!” The little group all turned to blink at the older man in worn out combat boots and a battered leather jacket standing in the doorway. He was holding a leash, at the end of which was a panting British Bulldog.. “I’m Herc Hansen, from the Sydney Shatterdome. I hope you guys are expecting us?”

 

When Raleigh headed down to pen nine an hour later, he heard the raised voices before he’d even passed pen seven. “...assholes in suits, what do they know of proper kaiju management? No I will not calm down...”

Mako gave him an awkward little smile as he approached. She was sitting on the floor outside the closed steel airlock door, her fingers buried in the bulldog’s fur. 

“Is there a…?” Raleigh started to ask. He faded off when he saw another person leaning against the hallway wall opposite Mako.

He was tall, wearing the same battered boots and leather combo that Herc had been wearing, but this guy was more Raleigh’s age. His arms were crossed, and he was scowling at the universe. Raleigh’s eyes flicked to the Sydney Shatterdome badge stitched onto the sleeve of the jacket, and pasted on a smile as he extended his hand. “Uh, hi. Raleigh Beckett, I’m one of the…”

“I know who you are, mate,” the Australian said, ignoring the outstretched hand. “You and your brother caught Yamarashi when it escaped into the LA waterfront.”

Raleigh tried not to let too much pride show -- that had been he and his brother’s first solo capture, and what should have been an easy bag-and-tag had been made difficult when the little kaiju had escaped into the massive container yard attached to the LA docks. They’d caught it, though, before it’d covered everything in kaiju blue. “You’re from the Sydney ‘dome too?” he asked politely. Chuck stared at him balefully.

Mako rolled her eyes as the silent staring match stretched out. “Raleigh, this is Chuck Hansen.” She smiled sweetly as they both looked her, Chuck with another scowl and Raleigh in surprise. He’d all but forgotten she was there.. “We grew up together when the Marshall and Ranger Hansen were stationed together at the Manila facility.”

Raleigh nodded and smiled pleasantly. Chuck Hansen just scowled some more and went back to leaning against the wall, arms crossed against the world. Raleigh was somewhat impressed at the range of grumpy expressions this guy had.

Before Raleigh could do anything, the heavy door banged open, and Herc Hansen stepped out into the hallway. “Mutavore settled?” The question earned him a scowl and a curt nod. “Good. Come on, let’s get the kit unpacked.” Sparing a slightly warmer smile for Mako, Herc almost dragged Chuck by the arm up the hall, the bulldog trotting along in their wake.

Mako pushed herself to her feet, dusting her hands on her pants as she straightened up. “Karena ga taizai shite iru?” she asked the Marshal through the open door.

“Hai,” the Marshal staring at some papers spread across his massive desk. 

He didn’t ask Mako to shut the door, and so Raleigh claimed it as an invitation and followed her into the Marshal’s office. “Why are they staying, though? Why drag their star kaiju halfway all the way to Hong Kong?”

The Marshal fixed them both with an unreadable stare that went on for several moments past comfortable. “Sydney ‘dome had its funding cut,” he admitted at last. “Hansen thinks it’s the start of a shutdown of all the kaiju and jaeger programs globally. They went first because, after Knifehead’s passing, they had the smallest menagerie of kaiju.”

Mako’s little gasp echoed around the small room. “But the kaiju…”

Marshal Pentacost dropped his papers to the desk and leaned heavily on them. That was almost as shocking as the news to Raleigh -- the old man never unbent for anything, or so he had always thought. “The kaiju would most likely be culled, or sold off to private collectors.”

“Like Chau,” Raleigh spat. “That man’s a butcher. He’d sell them for parts.”

The Marshal didn’t disagree. 

“What about the predictive model?” Mako asked.

At this, the Marshal straightened up. “If we can predict the Breach, we won’t have to run a complete sensor grid at all times. That’s over 60% of our budget, operating that network. Stepping down monitoring would cut expenditure in half. It just might save us.”

“If the model works,” Raleigh pointed out.

“If it works.” The Marshal agreed. The silence that followed settled across the room like a shroud. “Beckett, I need you and Miss Mori to help Herc and his son settle in Mutavore and their gear. We’re merging our Shatterdomes in every way the UNKT can’t see, to try and keep as many resources as we can in house for as long as we can. They have some tools we could use to test Dr Gottlieb’s theory.” He picked up a folder. “Dismissed.”

 

The lab was Yancy’s domain, and it was normally a bastion of calm amid the bustle of the Shatterdome. Hong Kong always had visiting scientists looking to test their pet theories, and Yancy normally handled them with aplomb.

The usual visiting scientists were not anything like Drs Gottlieb and Geiszler.

Yancy rolled his eyes at Raleigh’s questioning look. Across the room, the voices rose in volume, climbing steadily towards shouting. “They’ve been like this since they rolled in,” Yancy murmured as Raleigh drew near. “I think it might be all part of their process.”

Raleigh laughed at his brother’s wry smile. “Have fun with that.” He rolled his sore shoulder, wincing as the bruised joint protested the movement

Yancy grinned and span his chair back around to his own work. “Speaking of process, what’s this I hear that you and the Aussie jaeger came to blows?”

Raleigh sighed at the big brother-ness of Yancy’s tone. “It was nothing,” he muttered, fiddling with some pencils of Yancy’s desk. He didn’t have to look over to know his brother was giving him That Look. “It was nothing, just a few little shoves, that’s all. Working things out. We’re all good”

“Uh huh,” Yancy murmured, typing something into his terminal. “One day I’m going to write a paper about the Alpha traits of jaeger personnel, and everyone will know it’s about you, you brat.” Behind them, the shouting changed pitched, and both brothers glanced over to see the two scientists, heads bowed together, muttering angrily over something the computer was telling them. Raleigh grinned as they all but danced around each other, like they’d been sharing a lab for so long their projects and ideas had meshed together into one seamless whole. “You think they’re right?” Yancy asked suddenly.

“What? About the model?” Raleigh sighed, his eyes glancing over the boards covered in equations. “I hope so man, I hope so.”

Yancy laughed. “Or Team Sydney might be here permanently. You and the Hansen kid, working together. Forever.”

Raleigh groaned in real pain. “Please, no.”

Yancy just grinned, eyes twinkling. “Incoming.”

Raleigh frowned, but before he could ask, someone yelled “OI!”

Everything in the lab froze for a second. “Okay, not for us, cool,” Geiszler said after a pause just long enough for Chuck Hansen to glare at everyone in the room. “Go away, we’re doing science.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Raleigh saw Yancy grin delightedly. As Chuck turned to face him, Raleigh kept his seat out of spite. “Hello, Ranger Hansen,” he said with a shit-eating grin on his face. Yancy had spun his chair back around and was openly watching them now. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your delightful company?”

Chuck didn’t move from the doorway. “Marshal’s ordered us to put together the drop to the Breach to see if the model’s correct. So come on, I’m not doing your work for you.” He turned and stormed off before Raleigh could reply.

“Delightful,” Yancy noted drily, spinning back around once more. “I understand the appeal in hitting that pretty face. Go on, have fun, kid.”

Raleigh took small pleasure in shoving in Yancy’s chair, hard, as he passed.

He caught up with Chuck halfway down the corridor. “Hey, hey, what is your problem, dude?”

“Don’t call me dude,” Chuck snapped, never breaking stride.

Raleigh grabbed him and yanked him to a halt -- he already knew he could take Chuck in a fight. “You sore about losing? Or just sore?”

Chuck actually snarled, lips pulling back on a hiss, and Raleigh grinned. This was worth the chewing out from the Marshal, and the obvious punishment of having to work together to prep the drop. The Australian jaeger was all buttons begging to be pushed.

“Come on,” Chuck snapped, reigning in his temper with obvious effort. “Where’s your launch, anyway?”

“We’ve got five ready to go on the dock,” Raleigh noted. “But for this…” he grinned, unable to help himself. “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

“Ok,” Chuck replied, glancing up an intersection in the hallway before figuring out to turn left.

“Ok?” Raleigh stopped dead in the hallways. “Jaws?”

“Huh?”

“‘Gonna need a bigger boat’ - from Jaws. You know, the film?”

“Never seen it,” Chuck said distractedly, stopping at one of the security doors that kept the public out of the research areas.

Raleigh stared at him in disbelief. “What a travesty. Come on.” He swiped his passcard and stepped out on the busy concourse that lead to the docks. “We’ll need as many sonar buoys as we can muster, we’ll need to stop by the Kaidonovsky’s lair and see if they’ve repaired any more since the last time the Breach opened.”

Hansen must have toned down his scowl for the public streaming past. His jacket and jaeger patch was getting a few appreciative glances, and that seemed to be thawing him out. A little. “We’ve brought some with us from Sydney,” he offered.

“Sweet.” Chuck seemed startled by Raleigh’s sudden enthusiasm. “Go grab them and I’ll meet you out on the dock in twenty.”

A little closer to half an hour later, Raleigh struggled with the low loader as he navigated his load of buoy’s down the long sloping ramp to the docks. He saw Hansen waiting there, and braced himself for a snarky comment about the time.

“Who booked the Elvis cruise?” Hansen asked, loudly, as Raleigh approached.

It took a moment for him to figure out what he meant. “Hansen,” he said coldly, hackles raised once more. “That’s Tendo Choi, the best damn LOCCENT op there is.”

Chuck snorted. “Still looks like Elvis,” he muttered as he kicked out the brake on his own loader and shoved it with more force than finesse down to the water level.

“Beckett, my man!” Tendo called out, arms outstretched, as he saw them approach. Raleigh laughed as Tendo embraced him in one of his back-pounding hugs. 

“Tendo, this is Chuck Hansen.”

Tendo nodded, hand out for a firm shake. “From the Sydney ‘dome, yeah, the Marshal caught me up on that. Tough break, man, but for the record?” He used the handshake to yank Chuck forward, his grin sharp as a shark’s. “I’m more rockabilly than Elvis.”

Raleigh held his breath. Chuck met Tendo’s eye and gave him a firm, respectful nod. 

“Right.” Raleigh breathed out. “Let’s get this boat loaded.”

 

Dawn was barely breaking as everyone assembled at the dock to ship out to the Breach, and Hong Kong harbour was a still as a pond. In the distance, they could hear the hum of shipping out in the deep water lanes, but around their dock, everything else was quiet.

The Marshal stepped up onto the aft locker, and looked over the assembled team - the jaeger and the LOCCENT teams, the scientists, the boat crews. “Today is the day. Today we’re sailing out not just to test our theories, but to put ourselves and everything we’ve learned on the line.” He looked around at them and almost, almost smiled. “Today we’re changing what we know about the Breach. Set course, Mr Choi.”

Tendo all but snapped to attention, despite the giant insulated mug of coffee he was clutching like his personal lifeline. “Aye, sir.”

Raleigh pushed aft, trying to keep clear of the crew as they cast off and turned the bow towards the sunrise. Chuck was already sitting there, letting a sleepy-eyed Mako lean against him. He nodded, not unkindly, in greeting. Mako wiggled her fingers at him, her eyes still mostly closed. “So, are we placing bets?”

“Nope. We all want it to work too much to bet against the house,” Chuck said, and Mako chuckled. He glanced down at her fondly.

Raleigh sat down, his mind suddenly made up. “Whatever happens, you’re probably going to be in Hong Kong a while. So whaddya say?” He held out his hand. “Redo from start?”

Chuck eyed him for a long moment, weighing his options. “Chuck Hansen. Sydney Shatterdome jaeger.” He shook Raleigh’s hand. “Look forward to working with you, mate.”

“Me too,” Raleigh said, turning his eyes to the horizon. Somewhere, out there, was the Breach. And they were going to unlock it’s secrets.

**Author's Note:**

> This is more pre-slash than slash, sorry. I had to take a few liberties with the prompt but I hope you still like it. Happy PacRimMas


End file.
